Thursday is my message prep day. I’m also doing a little pre prep for BPC ‘s Christmas Eve talk. Here’s an excerpt from the book “How People of the Bible Really Lived” by Howard F. Vos who writes 3 examples of how the Jewish people, Romans & Greeks prepared for the coming of the Messiah & may not have even realized it.
Thought provoking reading & interesting stuff.....
The Jewish contribution:
Prepared the world for the coming of the Messiah by establishing synagogues through the Mediterranean area. Synagogues proliferated wherever Jewish people lived in substantial numbers. Possibly 150 of them were scattered across the Roman Empire standing for high ethical standards in a world without moral absolutes. The scriptures were written in Greek in a translation known as the Septuagint & as a result many Gentiles seekers became God fearers or proselytes to the Hebrew faith & later Christianity. The Old Testament is filled with the anticipation of the Messiah who would deliver God’s people Israel. The scripture present Him as Moses’ "Prophet", Isaiah's "suffering Servant", Jeremiah’s "Branch", Daniel’s "Son of Man", and as the coming of God Himself.
The Roman contribution:
Prepared the world for the coming of the Messiah by their conquests. Defeating various nations they contributed to the loss of faith in their gods, who were now seen as unable to protect the people. The Romans unknowingly created a spiritual vacuum.
The Greek contribution:
Prepared the world for the coming of the Messiah through the speculations of their philosophers. They undermined older polytheistic religions by their skepticism but failed to provide a satisfactory alternative. Some discovered a monotheistic being behind the welter of gods that people worshipped. Others taught immorality of the soul. Yet others were developing elevated ethical systems. And some, such as Epicurus & Zeno (the Stoics), sought a more personal relationship to God, or Being, in the universe. Each in their way both reflected & helped to create a hunger for a personal relationship with God who could provide eternal life & an inner strength to live out an ethic that would embrace all human relationships
All this preparation came together in a meaningful way at the birth of Christ. History, it seems, was ripe for the coming of Christ & His birth in Bethlehem. Paul declared, “When the fullness of time had come,” or “when the right time finally came,” “God sent forth His Son, born of a woman,” (Galatians 4:4) Living in that time Paul understood from experience how everything fits together. Jesus Christ made the impact that He did because to some degree the world was ready for Him and what He had to offer.
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3 comments:
Wow! This is great stuff P. Greg! I'm going to have to pick up that book! thank you!
One of my friends already told me about this place and I do not regret that I found this article.
Don't mean to be critical but after having studied with several different rabbi's and being a Catholic myself I have been lead to believe that the Jewish had temples back during the Roman Empire and not until it was destroyed did they begin to create and use synagogues. The Temple was the place for Sacrifice and with no sacrifice they tried to keep the Jews together by using Synagogues as a way to keep them educated as well. I do notice that when you try to gather information on the Jews it sometimes is difficult because of the way some Jews acclimated them selves when they left Jerusalem and journied to other lands. Then many of the synagogues did not practice the exact same rules like Catholic church do today. they operated more like independent Protestant churches where rules could be different. So we have to be careful when we classify all Jews a certain way at different eras and countries. something readers need to remember.
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